


Stuck Once Again

by sylvestercalzone



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-16
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-17 14:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2312540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylvestercalzone/pseuds/sylvestercalzone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marty, being the reckless person he is, rebuilds the time machine hoping to see Doc again. However, his plan backfires and he's stuck in 1955, once again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Marty really missed Doc. The wild-haired scientist was his only true friend, other than Jennifer. Marty could never accept the fact that he was possibly never going to see his friend again. So, after 2 years of waiting for another visit from the Doc, Marty went to Doc’s garage. It surprisingly looked exactly the same, even though it’s been 2 years since it has even been touched. He opened the door with the key that he had been given by his friend when he was 13 years old. Marty walked into the garage and took in the sight before him. The room looked as if it had been infested by a nest of dust bunnies. Marty suddenly felt a longing for past, remembering all the inventions he assisted Doc in creating in this room. He got an idea. He wiped off the dust off an old filing cabinet and opened it, reaching inside hoping to find a certain sheet of paper. He pulled out a diagram, which was of the flux capacitor. Marty smiled. He felt determined to do whatever it took to see his friend again.

~~~

Marty spent month after month studying diagrams, finding parts, and reading Doc’s journal to rebuild the time machine. Every single day, as soon as he got out school he went to the garage. Marty told Jennifer about his goal to rebuild the time machine. She was hesitant about what Marty was doing at first, since if he even succeeded building the machine, he could mess up the timeline of Hill Valley more than he already did. But after seeing her boyfriend work so hard, just to see a friend, she usually came to the garage everyday now with Marty, just so he could have some company.

“What are you doing now?”

Marty was using a blowtorch on the underside of the DeLorean Marty bought. The time machine looked as if it was already finished.

“Just putting a few finishing touches”

He rolled out from under the car and took a step back. He did it.

“Jennifer, I think I’m done”

She walked towards Marty and wrapped her arm around him.

“I knew you could do it.”

Marty looked at the machine he had spent a year building. He was now 20 years old and in college. Time really does fly.

“What’s the time?”

Jennifer looked at Doc’s strange assortment of clocks on the wall.

“Errr… it’s 9:00 p.m.”

He opened the door of the DeLorean, and motioned Jennifer to do the same.

“Come on, let’s try this thing out.”

Marty started the car and drove out of the garage towards Lone Pine mall.

_I’m coming for you Doc._


	2. Chapter 2

Lone Pine mall hasn't changed in the past 3 years. Marty couldn't fathom at how he was the reason this mall became Lone Pine mall instead of Twin Pines just because he ran over one of Mr. Peabody’s trees. Time really is delicate. He started to get second thoughts about doing this, but then he remembered that he worked so damn hard to build this time machine. He wasn't going to let that time go to waste. Marty drove into the parking lot outside of JC Penney and stopped the car and made sure the area was completely deserted.

“Jennifer, are you sure you wanna come with me to 1890? There’s no toilets there that flush, you gotta use the outhouse.”

 “Well… I’ll survive. And besides, I want to see what the Old West was like.”

“Whatever you say”

Marty got out of the car and walked towards the Mr. Fusion nuclear reactor. A while ago, he went to the railroad where the train demolished the DeLorean. He was looking for any parts that could be used to rebuild the time machine and surprisingly, the futuristic nuclear reactor was in perfect condition. Apparently it was made of some new type of plastic that was tougher that a diamond. Marty took out a garbage bag and dumped its contents in the reactor. He got back into car and set the destination panel:

**Nov 25 1890 7:00 a.m.**

**Destination Time**

**Aug 16 1988 9:20 p.m.**

**Present Time**

**Aug 16 1988 9:20 p.m.**

**Last Time Departed**

 

“Hey Marty, aren’t you going to test it first before we go?”

“What’s the point? I followed the exact instructions while building it, what can go wrong?”

Jennifer shook her head. Sometimes her boyfriend was so impulsive.

Marty started the DeLorean and backed up to the farthest part of the parking lot, then shifting the gear and accelerating, until he reached 88 miles per hour and the time machine disappeared in a glorious flash of light.

The time machine reappeared in a yard, running over a pine tree. The sun was just coming out and the surroundings didn’t look like 1890 at all.

“This isn’t the Old West…”

Marty’s eyes darted to the destination panel, widening at what he saw:

 

**Nov 25 1890 7:00 a.m.**

**Destination Time**

**Aug 16 1955 7:00 a.m.**

**Present Time**

**Aug 16 1988 9:20 p.m.**

**Last Time Departed**

_Noo…_

 


	3. Chapter 3

_It can’t be 1955. I followed all of Doc’s blueprints exactly. Nothing couldn't go wrong. The time machine shouldn’t have malfunctioned. Relax Marty, this is just a nightmare._

“Marty are you okay? Calm down, just take a deep breath... Where are we?”

Jennifer’s eyes bulged out as she saw what was making her boyfriend so anxious.

“Nineteen-fifty-five?! But didn’t you set it to 1895?”

Marty finally caught his breath and attempted to make sense of the situation. He knew for sure he built the time machine correctly. Or did he? No… it can’t be that. He set the destination panel to 1895 and now he was in 1955. Yeah this probably is a nightmare. Wait a second... Marty recalled when the destination panel was malfunctioning the second time he went to 1955. Which was why Doc got stuck in 1885. He mentally slapped himself for completely forgetting that problem.

“Hey! You punks ran over my pine tree!”

Marty and Jennifer looked behind them to see a very angry Mr. Peabody quickly approaching them.  

“I swear I'm tired of you damn kids wrecking my property  ̶ what the hell is that?”

Mr. Peabody stared at the vehicle in his presence, it looked like some sort of unusual car. However he remembered on the cover of one his son’s comic books, there was a similar object known as an alien spaceship. He wasn’t going to let any freak from outer space mess with his farm.

Marty stepped out of the car, hoping to prevent the man from attracting attention to the DeLorean.

Mr. Peabody saw what seemed like a door rise up, revealing a frightened teen wearing some strange clothing. He once heard his son talking about aliens that transform into humans, so he threw the shovel he had in his hands directly at the strange being in front of him.

Luckily, Marty had good reflexes or he would be unconscious now. He rapidly dodged the shovel by a hair and jumped back into the DeLorean. He accelerated the car towards the road, smashing into the Peabody’s mailbox in the process.

“Hey! Come back and pay for that!”

Marty finally got on the road, however the DeLorean slowed to a halt within 5 minutes. Marty hit his head against the steering wheel in frustration.

Jennifer noticed why the car had stopped and sighed. On the dashboard, the fuel gauge was pointing towards empty. 

“What did I tell you?”

“I know Jennifer I know. But we can probably get some fuel right?”

“Marty. We’re broke, we know nobody. We don’t even know where we are.”

“We can find the Doc of this year and ask him to help us, can’t we?”

“Wouldn’t that disrupt the meeting you had this year in November? Besides, the reason why he believed you that time was because that same day he thought of the flux capacitor. If he found out about the flux capacitor before he got the idea, who knows what will happen?”

“Alright alright, so we can’t interact with anyone. So what will we do?”

Jennifer shrugged.

“Well let’s just at least try pushing this car somewhere hidden so we can avoid messing up even more.”

The two young adults got out and started to push the car to god knows where.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delayed update, I'm not in a coma, school is starting to keep me real busy now though. Bit of a longer chapter, I kind of had some writer's block while writing this.

After what seemed like hours of pushing the DeLorean, Marty and Jennifer finally found a landmark in the distance. Jennifer eyed the figure as she tiredly uttered,

“Wha...what is that”

“I… I think it’s a bush”

 _Oh wonderful a bush_. 

An idea popped into Jennifer’s mind.

“Hey we could hide the DeLorean behind that bush!”

With the burst of determination, the two used their last ounce of energy to push the time machine behind the shrub. Heavily breathing, Marty and Jennifer fell to the ground, hoping they would never have to move their sore bodies ever again.

“Marty, what’s the time?”

Marty checked his watch and realized that it was still the time in 1988.

“Well it depends, the present time is 11:32 p.m.”

“What about the time now, in 1955?”

“I dunno”

“Can you check it?”

“I’m too tiredddd”

“Please?”

“Fine.”

The young adult groaned as he slowly got up, regretting that he had ever shown up to Doc’s experiment with the DeLorean in 1985. He glanced at the Destination Panel which read:

 

**Nov 25 1890 7:00 a.m.**

**Destination Time**

**Aug 16 1955 9:12 a.m.**

**Present Time**

**Aug 16 1988 11:32 p.m.**

**Last Time Departed**

 

“Jen, it’s 9:12”

“Thanks”

Marty took off his watch and began to reset the time when he saw a vehicle approaching in the distance. He quickly ran and dragged Jennifer along with him to hide behind the shrub.

“What was that for?”

“Shhhhh”

The two watched as the car slowed to a halt, taken aback at the people who were inside it. It was Biff and his gang.

“I just took this piece of shit to the mechanic and now it just breaks down in the middle of nowhere, for god’s sake!”

Biff aggressively kicked the convertible.

3-D, one of Biff’s friends, caught his eye on a small black object on the road.

“Biff, hey, check this out!”

3-D held up the small object to the rest of the horde. It was Marty’s watch!

“What is this… why is that thing blinking… hey look at what happens when I press the side!”

Biff played with the futuristic watch as an idea came into his head. He has never seen anything like this… maybe he can sell it, imagine how much money he would get.

Marty was debating whether to go and steal back his watch and risk the events of his first visit here or let Biff keep it. Either way, both ways would endanger the space-time continuum, right? But if that watch stays here wouldn’t it risk its own existence?

The large bully felt a strange presence behind him, it didn’t feel like Match, Skinhead, or 3-D. He turned around and saw a puny guy a bit older than his age. But that wasn’t what surprised Biff, it was his choice of clothing. He was wearing some sort of red life jacket and under, another jacket made of jeans. Then on his feet were shoes that had this check mark on it and said “Nike”.

“Give that back.”

Marty stood in front of Biff, trying to put on his most intimidating face. Biff grinned, he wasn’t going to let some nerd dressed in a life jacket as if he’s afraid to drown tell him what to do.

“Who the hell are you?”

“The owner of that watch...err thing you’re holding in your hand,”

“Well listen up butthead, I found it and now it’s mine. You can’t have it back, alright?”

With that, the large teen shoved Marty to the floor as he and his gang jumped back into the convertible and miraculously started the car, driving off into the distance.

Marty stared off to the direction Biff’s car went and cursed.

“Marty are you okay?”

Jennifer walked up from the bush she was hiding in and rushed to her boyfriend’s aid.

“Jen, I’m fine. It’s just… the watch, if I hadn’t been setting it while standing in the middle of the road…”

Marty rubbed his head in frustration. He's stuck in 1955 ( _again_ ), the DeLorean ran out of gas, they were broke, and now Biff stole his watch.

“C’mon Marty, let’s find some place to rest, we can worry about this later.”

~~~

Marty and Jennifer stood at the town square of Hill Valley, feeling like two outcasts in this time period. Jennifer inched closer to Marty as she saw how strangely different Hill Valley was in 1955 compared to 1988. Marty smirked, recalling his last two trips to this place. It was only 3 years ago when he first came here, yet it feels a lot longer than that. They saw a car drive by, campaigning for Red Thomas to stay mayor in the re-election. The two walked across the street and found a small inn. They walked inside and stood in front of the receptionist desk to get a room. The receptionist briefly glanced at the people in front of her, wondering what strange place they came from.

“Hello, can I help you?”

“Hi, me and Jen- I mean- Suzy would like to get a room please?”

“Okay, what is your name?”

“Calvin, Calvin Klein”

“How much nights would you like to stay here?”

“Uhhh… let’s make it two,”

Marty looked at Jennifer for assurance. She slightly nodded.

“Okay that will be $3.”

Marty froze, realizing that he didn’t have any money in this time period. Jennifer anxiously hoped that this receptionist would still let them stay.

“Umm I…”

The receptionist sighed, praying that she wouldn’t get fired for this.

“Look, it’s okay. You two look like you’ve travelled from a long way, and you probably don’t know anyone around here. Here’s your keys, you have room 5.”

Marty and Jennifer, amazed by the receptionist’s surprising act of kindness, uttered their thanks and proceeded to room 5, exhausted from the events that have taken place in the last few hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone would want read this, it has nothing to do with the story. 
> 
> Whatever, so the other day it was my birthday and I just came home from my aunt's house and the first thing I saw was through the window (I live in a condo) there was Back to the Future I playing on an outdoor movie screen. Apparently my city was having some sort of temporary drive in there for free. I was gonna go down there to watch it but the movie was already at the part where Marty went back to 1985 so I didn't bother. But still it felt like some indirect birthday gift. Anyways that is a part of my personal life that you guys probably couldn't care less about and I might delete later. Oh well.


	5. Chapter 5

Marty and Jennifer opened the door to reveal a small room with two twin beds. He smirked recalling how innocent the 50’s were compared to the present. The two got into their separate beds and dozed off.

 

~~~

 

Marty was standing before the parking lot of Lone Pine mall. He strangely had no memory of getting there or why he was even there. Marty looked down at his hands and saw that he had a letter in his hands.

 

_Dear Marty,_

_I hope this letter reaches you safely, I need to urgently talk to you. Meet me at Lone Pine mall at 1:30 a.m._

_Love,_

_Your friend in time, Doctor Emmett L. Brown_

It was the Doc! Marty felt a burst of excitement from knowing he was finally going to see him again. Then he wondered why he was so vague in the letter. Was he in danger? Marty checked his watch and saw it was 1:30 a.m.

_He was never late…_

Suddenly the sound of three sonic booms along with a flash of blue light and the time train appeared out of nowhere. The train descended and the front door opened, revealing the wild-haired scientist.

“Doc, Doc!”

Marty ran towards the door and froze at the sight of his friend, he was fading from existence.

“Marty… damn I’m too late… I came to warn you…”

But it was too late.

 

~~~

 

Marty was mumbling in his sleep, which woke up Jennifer. It was dark outside. She took notice of Marty fidgeting. And he was mumbling something about Doc. Jennifer got up and went to comfort him.

“Marty, Marty! Wake up!”

“No, no please don’t go away again!”

She began to stroke his hair, which calmed him down and he slowly opened his eyes.

“Jennifer!”

He immediately enveloped her into a hug, holding on to her for life.

“Dear god Jen please don’t ever go away from me!”

“Marty…shhhh, it was just a nightmare,”

“But it felt so real,”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, no I think I’m fine now.”

Jennifer knew he was lying but decided to shrug it off. She released from the hug.

“Hey what time is- oh wait I forgot Biff stole your watch.”

“I think there’s a clock here somewhere.”

Jennifer found a clock on the wall.

“It’s 10:50 p.m., woah we’ve been out for almost 12 hours.”

Marty stretched feeling the soreness from pushing that damn time machine. His mind went to that nightmare he had. It seemed so real, as if it was a memory instead of a dream. He decided to ignore it.

_It’s just a dream._

Jennifer walked towards the window.

“Do you think any clothing stores are open at this time?”

“Jen why would you ask a thing like that?”

“Well we need some 50’s clothes right?”

“We need money too though.”

“Oh yeah, got any ideas?”

“Well you can maybe work part-time somewhere, although not many places want to hire women as their workers these days. But also I don’t think I can go anywhere without causing a paradox.”

Jennifer chuckled.

“Okay you’ll just stay here.”

Marty was about to object when he realized it would be safer this way.

“I’m gonna take a shower now.”

Jennifer walked into the small bathroom and closed the door. Marty wandered to the window and wondered how the hell he was going to solve this situation. Until he caught sight of four figures walking in street, one of which was Biff. Marty immediately rushed out of the door, past the receptionist desk which was empty and out the entrance. He spotted Biff in the street and surprisingly tackled him to the ground.

“Where is it!?”

Marty searched through his pockets until he felt himself being lifted off Biff and slammed on the floor. Seeing that he’s overruled 1 to 4 people, he dashed out of there with Biff and his friends chasing after him. He hid in a small alley. Luckily Biff didn’t see him and continued to run in the same direction. After waiting for a few moments to make sure the coast was clear, he swiftly returned to the inn.

Jennifer had finished her business in the bathroom and opened the door.

“Hey Marty I think…”

But there was no Marty to be seen.

“Marty? This better not be a joke, I’m not in the mood.”

She continued to search the room. After a while she began to worry.

_What if he faded out of existence? No Jennifer don’t think like that. He’s fine. Don’t panic, don’t panic._

Relief flooded over Jennifer as Marty came through the door.

“Where were you?!”

She spotted a bruise on head.

“How did you get that bruise?”

“I saw Biff and I went to get see if could get the watch back.”

“Next time before you run out like that tell me, okay? I seriously got worried for a second right there. Anyways, did you get the watch?”

“Nope, I have to find a way to get the watch without Biff noticing me.”

Jennifer took a cold wet towel and put it on the bruise on Marty’s head.

“So what do we do now?”

Marty searched through his pockets and found a deck of cards. He held it up.

“We could play Speed.”


	6. Chapter 6

After hours of playing various card games together and attempting to create a new one for the reason of their boredom, Marty and Jennifer finally caught sight of a couple businesses opening their stores.

“I should start to go job hunting now,”

Jennifer yawned.

"Got any places you plan to go to?”

“I was thinking of a café, I think they’ll accept me.”

“Good luck.”

Marty went in for a kiss.

“Ew! Your breath stinks!”

“Hey it’s not my fault that we don't have any toothpaste!”

“Technically it is since you built the time machine in the first place and didn't bring any money.”

“Well you decided to come with me!”

“Touché, I think I should go now. Bye!”

“Bye Jen.”

And with that, Jennifer left the room to find some way to get money for the two.

 

~~~

 

It is now 8:23 a.m. and Marty is beginning to wish it was possible to die from boredom. Jennifer left in hope of finding a job about an hour ago and Marty has tried to play solitaire ever since.

_What am I doing? I don’t even know how to play solitaire!_

He threw the deck of cards at the wall and watched as the cards fell and splattered across the floor. He decided he would clean that up later. Instead his mind went to that nightmare he had. It was strange for him to get nightmares. He couldn’t remember the last bad dream he had before this one. But it didn’t feel like a dream either, it felt more like a… memory? No that can’t be true. Right then and there, someone knocked at the door. Marty got up and went to answer it.

“I brought a television set for you and your friend,”

A man stood at the door with a Zenith television next to him. He was wearing a suit and tie.

“Uh thanks. Who are you?”

“I’m the manager of this inn, Daniel Smith.”

He brought out his hand to shake.

“Oh… hi Mr. Smith.”

Marty awkwardly took his hand in a handshake.

“Why did you bring a television for us though? Don’t you have other guests?”

“None of them seem to be using them. So thought maybe you would like one in your room. By the way, where is your friend?”

“Uh she…went out to get me something.”

“Oh okay, do you need help bringing this set in. Boy these weigh quite a bit.”

“Nah I’m fine.”

“If you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask,”

With that, the kind manager left. Marty attempted to lift the TV and fell over. He muttered,

“Man he wasn’t kidding…”

Marty went in for another attempt and managed to lift the set one inch until it fell from his grasp… on his foot.

“Shit!”

He hopped around cursing to himself while holding his throbbing foot.

_How the hell did he lift this here?!_

On a last attempt, Marty tried pushing the TV, which caused the TV to just fall on its side.

“Mr. Smith?!”

 

~~~

 

After getting Mr. Smith to bring the TV and set it up in the room, Marty plopped down on the floor and twisted a knob to turn on the ancient TV. The sound of a news anchor was heard and the image of the person behind the voice gradually appeared in black and white. Marty turned a knob to change the channel which showed an episode of _Disneyland_. Marty sat back and let the animated cartoons on the screen cure his boredom.


End file.
